The Discreet Charm of the Bourgeoisie (1972)

The Discreet Charm of the Bourgeoisie, Luis Buñuel. This one won the academy award for “best foreign language film.” Strange, because it’s the closest thing Bunuel did to outright surrealism since L’Age d’Or (1930). A group of affluent people attempt to dine together; each interrupted meal is an episode. One episode collapses into the next without any indication of who is narrating the stories; there is no beginning and no end though the film travels in a linear direction, or at least seems to; and while the ensemble of characters subtly shifts from one episode to the next, they never change beyond who they are—or are not. It’s one of the best explorations of the illogic of dream-time ever filmed, and even though it is not a horror flick, I know people it gave nightmares.